There is one day in particular that I think of fondly as being the best day of my life - Sunday, January 23, 2005.

This was the day that a really powerful blizzard hit New England, starting the previous evening and extending well into Sunday.

How powerful was it? Enough to have its own wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_of_2005

Yup, it was quite a Nor’easter

In many ways, that day has become for me a microcosm, a snapshot of the life God is calling me to live. I will always look to that day and a prior walk along some railroad tracks as foundational experiences in my journey with God, during which I encountered Him and He identified me as His own in unforgettable imagery.

The day actually started the night before - in the middle of the blizzard I couldn’t restrain myself anymore and I took off driving around Northboro. There were numerous warnings and alerts on the radio and TV, asking people to stay off the roads because the blizzard was that bad. Which only made me want to go out in it even more And I felt SO alive!

Yes, it was dumb - the only other vehicles on the road were the large plow trucks, and I’m sure they were not amused at having to watch out for the yuppie in the little Subaru

While driving, I called Alexis on my cell phone (but I *DID* have a headset on), and we had a great conversation while I drove. I had just met her a couple of weeks ago, and we hadn’t gone out on our first date yet (which was to happen later that week, during which we almost burned down the Thai restaurant we had dinner at, but that’s another story). Admittedly I wanted to impress her with my reckless adventuresomeness, but even so I knew she had a similar heart for adventure - she was deeply envious of my cavorting around in the snow in my car

Well, I got home safe, but it was still quite exciting to see the sheer power of the storm - a blizzard is so intensely different from most other storms, so deceptively quiet and peaceful, but you can tell by the way the flakes hurry nervously and heavily to the ground that there is a raging fury above that propels them.

So I walked In the night, in near-zero visibility, in idiotic windchill, and temperatures so cold my eyelashes were freezing. I walked along the same railroad tracks, but got totally spooked when I looked down the tracks into the dark and felt something quite eerie in the distance, hidden by the swirling mad-crazy snow. So I turned and ran, and ran, with the fear of God snapping at my heels, but still so sure that His hand was swirling around me and was protecting me.

Silliness ‘Twas just the storm.

I went to bed in a thrill, eager for daybreak so I could go do some more playing in the snow. And, sure enough, come daybreak I was excitedly putting on my many layers of clothing to head out for some more walking. I had this huge grin on my face as I walked around the neighborhood, braving the whipping wind and icy conditions.

I went back up the same railroad tracks I had gotten spooked at the night before, but this time they were so peaceful and calm - buried under 3 feet of snow! So, I plopped down in the snow and made snow angels!! I was laughing so hard and had such a good time.

I did a very yuppie thing - I pulled out my cell phone and replaced my standard voicemail greeting with this line:

Hi, this is Hari, and it’s the Blizzard of 2005, and I’m busy making snow angels! Do leave me a message, and I’ll call you back when I’m done!

And, yup, I kept this message around until summer Annoyed the heck out of some of my friends!

Anyway, afterward I made my way back to my apartment. The previous day I had gone to Home Depot and bought two large snow shovels and snow brooms, so that I could dig my neighbors’ cars out of the snow and clear their walkways. As I started clearing the walkways, though, I saw that the snow was still coming down heavy and thick, so I decided to wait till later.

Instead, I went back into the house and made myself breakfast - the first meal I cooked since moving in to my apartment a couple of weeks ago. I considered it to be a “communion” meal, so I pulled out my Bible and did my reading for the day, which happened to be a strange reading from 1 Kings 13. I reflected and prayed for a while, and then took a look outside.

The snow was still coming down heavy and thick, so instead I got into my car and drove out! There was still a state of emergency on the roads, so, technically, I wasn’t supposed to, legally, be driving, per se, but, hey, I’m from Yemen, I don’t know any better

Instead, I called up my friends to see if they wanted to come out and join me for the drive! I called Alexis, but the idea of driving out to Amherst to pick her up was a bit too reckless, even for me, even then A bunch of my other friends said I was an idiot (but I could tell by the tinge of envy in their voices that they wished they had my reckless idiocy…) but I found two unlikely takers: Claire Angus, who had always struck me as being the voice of reason, and Darel Linebarger - my friend/brother/manager/compadre. Darel in fact suggested I pick up Claire (whose house was near the Linebargers) and come over for brunch first.

So we showed up at the Linebargers and had brunch looking out the picture window in the kitchen at the snow-covered backyard. Darel and Claire and I tried to persuade Darel’s wife, Leslea, to come join us, but she was having none of it…

… until she glanced out and saw four deer bounding across the backyard. The snow was so deep they almost disappeared everytime they came down, so they almost looked like porpoises out there, but it was still quite an amazing sight. She was silent as she watched them go by and then turned around to us, who were still entranced by the sight. “How far are you going?”

I shrugged. “A half-hour or so… maybe more, depending on the snow… but don’t worry, I have a good shovel in the car in case we get stuck.”

Apparently that did it - Leslea joined us too, and the four of us took off in my little Subaru, sliding and twisting around backroad corners in the surreal snowscape

Come afternoon, I dropped the Linebargers off at their house, dropped Claire off at her place, and drove back to my apartment - I still had neighbors to dig out! I drove into the townhouse parking lot to find my neighbors tentatively wandering out of their apartments, trying to figure out where to start digging.

I jumped right in with my shovels, digging and laughing and chatting with my neighbors. I had just moved into the place a couple of weeks ago, and I found out that many of them had just moved there within the past year too. They didn’t know each other, typical of many apartment communities here, and the blizzard was a blessing for the community - as I looked around I saw the neighbors out in the snow, talking to each other, shoveling every now and then but simply connecting. Many invitations were exchanged for hot chocolate or meals for later.

And I got to meet and connect with my upstairs neighbors and my next door neighbors! I dug out my next door neighbor’s cars and cleared their walkway, something they were quite stunned by when they came out!

By this time it was evening, but I wasn’t done yet - energized by the snow clearing and community feeling, I drove over to the Chapel parking lot. John had taken the youth group up to Berea in New Hampshire for a weekend youth retreat, and I knew a bunch of cars were in the parking lot. The chances of them returning that evening were slim, but I knew that when they did return they would be exhausted and would appreciate the cars being cleared of snow.

So, sunset and nightfall found me digging away at the dozen or so cars in the parking lot, trying to clear them off as much as possible so that people coming back from the trip could get their car out reasonably easily. I shoveled alone, with my car door wide open and Rich Mullins blasting in the parking lot! It was fantastic!

When I got exhausted (actually, when Vit Sparling told me on the phone to drop the shovel and go home), I called up Darel to see what he was up to - there was a Patriots-Steelers playoff game that evening, and Darel invited me to come watch it at his house. So I drove back to my apartment, showered and changed quickly, and went over to Darel’s.

We hung out and watched the Pats convincingly beat the Steelers (on their way to their third Superbowl championship!), and it was a great time of guy hangout - Darel was reading this book of “guy poetry” that was just hilarious, and during commercial breaks he shared some really funny ones. We must have been the only two guys in New England who discussed poetry while watching the football game that night.

Alexis called sometime during the game, but I decided not to answer - partly because I was watching the game, but partly because also I felt I needed to “play the game”, i.e. I felt like I had been making too many calls to her and I didn’t want to appear desperate. I found out much later that Alexis was worried sick about me, because the last she heard from me was I was headed out for a walk in the middle of the blizzard along these railroad tracks. She was worried that I was dying out there in the snow! This was a lesson to me - no more games!!

Anyway, late that night I came back home, and plopped into bed. I was exhausted, but in that “GOOD” kind of way. My mind was in that comfortable warm buzz that comes after a good day of activity, and I reflected and prayed and praised and thanked God.

I remember thinking at that time how good the day was. I felt like that was a day which I had truly LIVED. It had SO MUCH packed into it - time with God, time with friends, time with neighbors, service, prayer, growth, adventure, love, brotherhood, reckless passion.

I remember thinking that night that I wanted to remember that day as how I wanted my life to be. And I remember realizing that God had just blessed me with a microcosm, a snapshot, of what LIFE with Him would be like. It felt like I found a key piece of my identity that day, that God said “THIS is who I am making you to be, THIS is the LIFE I have for you.”

I love that day - and I want to live life like that